


A Very Pines Family

by Aceofstars16



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Christmas, I'm so tired I don't know what to tag this as, Other, Pines Family, Pines Family Fluff, Secret Santa, could be be dipcifica if you squint but eh? xD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 13:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17142875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aceofstars16/pseuds/Aceofstars16
Summary: Pacifica isn't a huge fan of Christmas, but fortunately for her, Mabel is on the case!





	A Very Pines Family

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr post](http://aceofstars16.tumblr.com/post/181383988838/a-very-pines-christmas)

Pacifica stared at the boxed of unwrapped gifts. She had gotten everything she wanted, and more. Toys and fashion products, dresses she knew she would be expected to wear in the future – despite some of them looking a little less than comfortable. But that is what was expected of her, and she knew that. Such was her life.

There was a knock on the door and she looked up to see Lester, the butler.

“Pardon me miss, but your parents are leaving.”

“Right…I…I’m coming.”

A few minutes later, after many reminders of “follow our instructions” and “we don’t have service so don’t try to call us unless it’s an emergency” and then they were off on their yearly Christmas vacation. In the past, Pacifica had gone with them, but this year they were going to an ‘adult only’ resort. Plus they said Pacifica was “plenty old enough to be at the mansion with the staff.” So, they had hosted their annual Christmas ball early and Pacifica had already opened all her presents.

As the car disappeared, Pacifica tried to figure out what she was feeling. Part of her was happy that all of the charade of fanciness was over with, but there was still a pang in her chest. Christmas had never been very fun – at least not after she realized the presents she got only left her wanting more – but now she felt even lonelier than before, even though her parents rarely hung out with her when they were here. The only upside was that at least now she wouldn’t have to put on a show for the holidays…

* * *

Light snowflakes fell from the pale sky, all of which Mabel tried to catch on her tongue, despite it making her face colder than it already was. That was the fun of snow after all, letting your face get all frozen so you could warm it up with hot chocolate later.

“Five in a row, yes!” Pumping her fist in the air, Mabel heard Dipper’s laugh beside her and she glanced over to see that he was trying to stay as warm as possible by hiding his face in his scarf.

“Come on bro bro, you should try it out!”

“I’d rather keep my nose unfrozen, the Shack is still a good ten-minute walk from here.”

“Pfft, unfrozen noses are overrated, you’re totally missing out.” As she spoke, Mabel stuck out her tongue again, catching another flake on it. As she did so, the bag full of supplies swung in her hand. This morning she may or may not have polished off all of the grunkle’s marshmallows and seeing as you couldn’t have snow or Christmas without marshmallows, a quick stop to the store had been in order. Of course, Grunkle Stan had offered to drive them, but snow was such a rarity in California that Mabel had insisted on walking instead, though she supposed if it started snowing any harder it might get a little less fun.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dipper shake his head, but from the crinkle of his eyes she could tell he was smiling behind his scarf. She grinned back, only to let out a yelp as the wind blew a snowflake right onto the back of her neck – which was one of the few parts of her body that had managed to stay warm so far.

“Brrr, wind that wasn’t very nice!”

“You know it can’t understand you, right?” Dipper asked, as he pulled his scarf tighter around his neck.

“And how do you know that? There might be wind spirits that are listening RIGHT NOW!” Yelling the last words at the grey sky, Mabel was greeted with another gust of wind that sent a chill down her back. “See?”

A chuckle shook Dipper’s body, but then he shrugged. “It’s not impossible I suppose, and if there were any, Gravity Falls would be the place for them.”

Pleased with his acceptance of the possible spirits, Mabel continued walking forward, trying to ignore how cold her nose really was. It wasn’t that much further after all, and it was fun, just a little…chilly, that’s all.

“What are you two doing out in a snowstorm like this?”

Having been so caught up in her conversation with Dipper, Mabel hadn’t noticed the limo that was driving down the road until a familiar voice sounded from it.

“Pacifica!” Once upon a time, Mabel wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing Pacifica, but after a rocky start and two adventure filled summers, she very much considered her a friend. “We are just enjoying the cold.” As she spoke, she spun around in the snow, grinning.

“One of us is at least.”

Mabel heard Dipper, despite it being mumbled, and she grabbed his arm. “Oh come on, Dip Dop, you liked it when we left the Shack!”

“That was before it started snowing. And I had just finished drinking some hot chocolate too.”

“And we’ll have more when we get back!” Mabel said, holding up her bag. “With all the marshmallows.”

“You know…”

Pacifica’s hesitant voice stopped Mabel as she swung the bag in front of Dipper’s face – which he had been batting away while laughing. Turning to look at their friend, Mabel tilted her head.

“Yeah?”

“I might be able to give you a lift to the Shack…if…you wanted?”

Mabel opened her mouth to answer, but Dipper beat her to it.

“Yes please!”

A small laugh escaped Pacifica, and she rolled up her window only to open the car door a second later. Another gust of wind ruffled Mabel’s hair and she shrugged. It _was_ kind of cold.

Crawling in the car after Dipper, Mabel closed the door and was met with hot air blowing right on her face.

“Oooo, that does feel good,” she said as she stuck her face right against the vent.

“I thought you liked the cold?”

Mabel swatted at Dipper while trying to not move her face and was met with laughter. “I like heaters too, stupid.”

After his laughter died away, Dipper spoke again. “So, Pacifica, what are you doing for Christmas?”

That instantly got Mabel’s attention and she pulled away from the heater. “Are you going to bake cookies? Or have a fire? Or decorate your tree with all of the popcorn you can find?!? Or-“

Dipper nudged her side, effectively distracting Mabel long enough for her to see the apprehensive expression on Pacifica’s face.

“I…no. My parents left for a vacation so we…already celebrated I guess.” Pacifica shrugged as she spoke, but she didn’t make eye contact, a sure sign that something wasn’t right.

“Wait…” Mabel stared at her for a moment as her words sunk in. “…so you aren’t going to be with your family on Christmas?”

Another shrug. “No, but it’s fine. I mean, we already had our big Christmas party and that’s when we really celebrate anyway. I’m used to it…it…it’s fine.”

“Nope!” Mabel blurted out, getting both Dipper and Pacifica to look up at her in shock.

“That’s not acceptable. You can’t be alone on Christmas. You are coming over.”

“What?!?” Dipper and Pacifica said at the same time, which resulted in them looking at each other for a second, as if wondering why they kept reacting in the same way.

Turning to look back out the window, Pacifica sighed. “It’s fine, really. I don’t really like celebrating that much anyway.”

“WHAT?!?” Mabel screamed so loud, the driver swerved on the road. “HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS?!?”

Staring at her with wide eyes, Pacifica hesitantly answered. “I mean, it’s just about the presents and the fancy parties.”

Jaw dropping, Mabel took a deep breath, ready to lay out just what Christmas was really about, when she was interrupted by Lester – Pacifica’s butler that she had gotten to know last summer.

“Here we are, the Mystery Shack.”

“It’s really storming now, you guys should go.”

“But-“

A hand rested on Mabel’s shoulder and Dipper smiled sadly at her, he seemed resigned to the fact that Pacifica simply didn’t like Christmas.

“Go on, it’s really storming.” Pacifica said, trying to shoo them out.

But Mabel wasn’t going to give up. Turning to look at Pacifica, she locked eyes with her. “Christmas morning, eight o’clock. You’re not gonna be alone on Christmas.”

“I-“

This time, Dipper was the one to interrupt. “It couldn’t hurt…right? And,” he glanced at Mabel, “You really don’t want to argue with Mabel when she’s made up her mind.”

There was silence for a moment, then a sigh. “Fine…”

A grin broke out on Mabel’s face and she opened the door, letting in a wave of snow and wind. “Great, see you then!”

Then she grabbed Dipper’s hand and dragged him out of the car, ideas already forming in her head. She was going to do everything in her power to make sure that Pacifica absolutely loved Christmas after this year.

* * *

One upside of not having parents around was getting to sleep in. Normally, Pacifica was expected to get up at seven every day, with only the rare exception here and there. But now she could sleep in as much as she wanted. Or at least she thought she could.

Pacifica had just curled back up under her covers – her body automatically waking up early per habit – ready to get another two or three hours of sleep when the doorbell rang.

“What the-?” She muttered, not wanting to move and reasoning that Lester would get it. She could go back to sleep, right?

Wrong. A few seconds later, the sound of feet running towards her room reminded her of her agreement to go to the Shack to celebrate Christmas. An agreement she regretted as soon as Mabel ran into her room, a grin lighting up her face almost as much as her light filled sweater lit up the walls.

“Merry Christmas Pacifica!”

Blinking her eyes against the bright lights, Pacifica glanced over at the clock by her bed and squinted at the time - 7:30. “I thought you weren’t supposed to get here until eight?”

“Wellll, that was the plan, but then you’d miss out on mom’s famous Christmas waffles! Come on, she was already starting on them when we left!”

“We?” Pacifica couldn’t help but ask as she reluctantly pulled off the covers and rolled out of bed. Despite wanting to sleep more, she couldn’t help but be a little curious as to how other people celebrated the holidays. Especially the Pines. Knowing them, it would be beyond strange but also…probably pretty fun.

“Yup! Grunkle Stan drove me and Dipper here, but Dipper is still half asleep, I think him and Grunkle Ford stayed up talking about nerd things.” When she spoke, Mabel rolled her eyes, but the sparkle in her eye hinted that she didn’t mind her brother’s interests at all.

“Alright, just let me get some warmer clothes on.” Walking to her closet, Pacifica started rummaging through her coats.

“Oh! I almost forgot!”

Jumping at the sheer volume of Mabel’s voice, Pacifica quickly looked over to see what all the fuss was about.

“This is for you!”

Mabel had untied a sweater from around her waist and was holding it up, a grin on her face. It was a light blue sweater with a Christmas tree on it, only instead of a star, there was a llama on top of it. The whole thing screamed Mabel, but Pacifica couldn’t help but feel touched as she accepted the gift. Had Mabel made this in the past two days just for her?

Guilt crept into her chest as she realized she didn’t have any gifts for anyone.

“I’ll leave you to it! But hurry!”

Before she could reply, Mabel had bounced out the door and Pacifica was left staring at the sweater. Glancing at the pile of gifts in the corner of the room, she wondered if she could regift any of them, but she doubted the Pines would like any of them. Biting her lip, she tried not to think about it as she pulled on two layers of pants, a white longsleeve and then the sweater. To finish it off, she grabbed some of her favorite snow boots, a festive beanie, and a jacket - if yesterday was any indication she would want them. The beanie clashed with the blue sweater but her parents weren’t there and it was kind of nice not to worry about looking amazing.

Saying a quick bye to Lester, Pacifica followed Mabel out into the snow where Stan’s old car sat in the driveway. As she climbed into the back, Pacifica couldn’t help but remember the first time she had ridden in the car. It never felt the safest, and it wasn’t particularly warm, but it was cozy in a way that the limo never was.

“Seat belts.” The familiar voice of Stan sounded from the driver’s seat.

“Never unbuckled mine.” Dipper’s sleepy reply came from the front seat as Pacifica buckled her seat belt.

“Kid you gotta stop staying up late, you’re as bad as my brother.”

“At least he’s not eating his shirt!” Mable piped up, which seemed to instantly wake Dipper up.

“Mabel!” For a brief second, he looked at Pacifica, his face flustered in embarrassment, then he quickly looked forward again before mumbling under his breath. “I don’t do that anymore…”

“Sure you don’t…” Mabel winked at Pacifica which resulted in her trying not to laugh.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, or as uneventful as a car trip could be with the Pines. Which meant they skidded on the road about five times and pointed out strange shapes in the snow, all while Mabel played jello in the back and Stan sang a song that Pacifica didn’t recognize at all but he insisted was a Christmas song.

As the car pulled up to the Shack, Pacifica felt her excitement for the day growing, despite her uncertainty of what to even expect.

“We have returned!” Mabel yelled as she kicked the door open.

“Just in time, waffles are ready!” A woman that Pacifica could only assume was Mabel and Dipper’s mom said as she poked her head around the corner.

The waffles, it turned out, were just regular waffles - though they did taste quite amazing - but with just about any topping you could think of. Marshmallows, chocolate syrup, caramel, fruit candies, actual fruit, toffee bits, whipped cream, syrup - maple and strawberry flavored - and about a dozen other things Pacifica couldn’t name.

It was without a doubt the most sugary breakfast Pacifica had ever partaken in, and also the messiest. Whipped cream somehow ended up in Dipper’s hair, and Pacifica’s hands were sticky with syrup by the end. But all in all it was quite delicious not to mention a far cry from the posh breakfasts she was used to. Teasing and jokes with mouths not being closed all the way, food being thrown across the table. It was a little cringe worthy, but also…fun.

“Best breakfast ever!” Mabel declared as she took the last bite of her overindulgent sugar tower of a waffle.

“The best breakfast would actually consist of more protein and not half as much sugar-”

“Oh can it Poindexter, sugar beats your ‘healthy’ meals any day!” Stan said, cutting off Ford before he could finish, which resulted in rolling eyes and punches that had no real anger behind them.

“Now time for presents!” Mabel said, jumping off of her chair.

“Not yet.” Mrs. Pines pointed to the table. “We need to clean up first.”

“But mom!” Mabel pointed to Pacifica. “We have a guest!”

Glancing at the table, Pacifica couldn’t help but be reminded of a few of the messy tables that she had cleaned up at Greasy’s Diner. Granted, this was worse but the familiarity of cleaning sounded nice. “It’s fine Mabel. I’ve learned a few cleaning tricks from the Diner, we’ll have this cleaned up in no time!”

For a moment, Mabel looked skeptical and Pacifica caught a wordless conversation between her and Dipper. Then Mabel sighed. “Okay, but then presents!”

The table turned out to be even stickier and messier than Pacifica had anticipated, but with the help of some homemade cleaner invented by Ford and a lot of scrubbing and soap, it turned out to be quite doable, and more fun than expected. But maybe everything with the Pines was just that way, they could make mucking out a stall a blast.

“I wonder what this tastes like…” Mabel said, holding up a pile of bubbles created by the cleaner.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you…” Pacifica said, staring at Mabel as she ignored the advice and shoved some bubbles into her mouth, only to spit them out a second later.

“NOPE! It doesn’t taste like pine needles at all!”

“You didn’t like pine needles when you tried them either.” Dipper managed to say through a laugh as Mabel rinsed her mouth with water.

“This was worse…” Mabel said, sticking her tongue out as if trying to keep any of the taste from entering her mouth again.

“Yeah, soap isn’t really…meant to be eaten,” Pacifica said, grabbing a paper towel and handing it to Mabel. “Rub your tongue on this, it should help.”

Mabel accepted it and aggressively started rubbing her tongue on it, which was quite amusing to watch.

“How did you know…?” Dipper asked, his mouth turned down in a confused frown.

Pacifica waved her hand, feeling a small prickle of embarrassment settle in her stomach. “I know things.” As much as she liked the Pine twins, Pacifica wasn’t super keen on telling them that as a kid she had tried to eat a fancy looking bar of soap.

“Blegh! Remind me never to do that again…” Mabel said, then her face lit up. “Now, PRESENTS!”

Mabel grabbed Dipper and Pacifica’s hands and dragged them into the living room, where a rerun of At Home By Yourself was playing while the adults visited.

“Attention everyone!” Mabel shouted, earning an amused look from everyone in the room aside from Stan, who looked downright approving. “It is now time for GIFTS!”

Pacifica didn’t know what she expected when she sat down, but never in her wildest dreams did she expect to get presents herself, and yet, Mabel - who was running around placing everyone’s gifts at their feet - had placed four packages on her lap. And she couldn’t help but stare at her gifts while everyone else tore open their presents.

There was no method to the gift opening, everyone seemed to be opening up gifts at the same time and yet there were “thank you’s” and screams and hugs for every gift opened. Pacifica found herself watching, comparing it to the complete order of her Christmases where everyone took a turn to unwrap a present carefully and fold the paper before the next gift was opened. She much preferred this version.

“REALLY?!?” Dipper’s excited shout momentarily stopped everyone in their tracks and they all looked over to see Ford nodding.

“What?!?” Mabel asked, trying to grab the letter from Dipper, but he clung to it.

“Grunkle Ford is going to show me around the multiverse!”

There was silence for a moment.

“The…what?” Mrs. Pines asked at the same time her husband asked, “Is that safe?”

Ford raised up his hands. “I assure you, it will be safe. I know the multiverse quite well, and it will only be for a day or two.”

The Pines parents didn’t look convinced, but Dipper was grinning from ear to ear.

“Can we go next summer?!?”

“If I can find a stable rip by then, but seeing as me and Stan have found quite a few in our travels I don’t think that should be a problem.”

“I don’t know if you’d call those _stable_ rips…” Stan muttered under his breath, but there was a smile on his face. Pacifica had never known any old people as keen on adventuring as Stan and Ford, but it seemed to fit them quite well.

“Pacifica, you haven’t opened any of your presents!”

Mabel’s exclamation shook Pacifica out of her thoughts.

“Oh…right!” Looking at the pile of presents, Pacifica grabbed the biggest one and carefully started unwrapping it.

“Not like that!” Mabel said, “Rip it!”

Dipper laughed and shook his head. “Let her do it how she wants to, Mabel.”

Glancing at the package, a mischievous smile grew on Pacifica’s face. She hadn’t torn open a gift in years…grabbing a corner of it, she torn it.

A few seconds later, she was pulling out a familiar looking sweater, a llama stitched on the front. It must have been altered since Weirdmageddon a year ago, because it looked like it would actually fit her despite having grown since then. Pacifica still remembered returning the sweater and quietly wishing she could keep it, and now it was hers.

“I made a sweater for everyone else on the wheel, so I figured you should have one too.”

Looking up, Pacifica saw Mabel grinning at her and she returned the smile. “Well, it doesn’t match any of my other clothes…but I don’t care. My parents are going to hate it but I love it.”

“Now, open your other presents!”

And so the gift opening continued, though everyone else had already opened most of their gifts. Aside from the sweaters - two if you counted the Christmas one Mabel had already given her - Pacifica also got some advanced sort of hair curler/dryer/straightener. Apparently Ford had made one for Mabel and she thought Pacifica would like one too. It was pretty nice seeing as it didn’t need to be plugged in and did everything she needed in one go. Dipper gave her the first book of “The Sibling Brothers” mystery books, which was obviously worn from having been read many times, but she didn’t mind too much. And lastly, she got a bag of cookies and treats from the Pines parents. It wasn’t much. Compared to all of the presents from her own parents, they were laughably cheap, but Pacifica didn’t care. She loved them all.

After the last present was opened, Mrs. Pines once again instructed them to clean up, but this time it was quite fun, even more so than cleaning the table. They had a wrapping paper fight and tried to see who could throw the most balls of paper into the trash can, along with some cardboard roll fights - how the rolls got mixed up in it, Pacifica didn’t know, but she didn’t mind in the slightest.

“Score!” Mabel yelled as the last ball of paper thunked into the trash can. And as soon as she spoke, Mabel flopped onto the floor.

“I think they wore themselves out.”

Pacifica heard Mr. Pines speak, but she didn’t look up from her own spot on the floor. After staying up last night, getting up early, and cleaning up, she was starting to feel quite tired.

“We’re not tired, we could totally take on a gremloblin right now,” Dipper mumbled from his collapsed state against the foot of the couch.

“I don’t even want to know what that is…” Pacifica said, closing her eyes and trying not to yawn.

“HOT CHOCOLATE!”

Mabel’s shout jolted Pacifica out of her tired daze. “What?”

“That’s what we need, hot chocolate!”

“I’m too hot for hot chocolate.” Dipper wiped his head as he spoke. How he could be so sweaty even in the winter was a mystery.

“Sounds like you kids need to cool off.” Stan grinned and the next second, he had picked up Mabel who immediately started laughing and trying to squirm out of his grip.

“Nooooo!” She squealed as Stan grabbed Dipper too, who let out a yelp.

A spurt of energy rushed through Pacifica and she quickly followed after Stan, who had run out the door, though she grabbed her jacket as she did so - the twins weren’t so lucky.

Upon stepping outside, Pacifica saw all three Pines in the snow, laughing and throwing chunks of snow at each other. Grabbing a bit with her gloved hands, Pacifica threw a ball, which hit Dipper right on his back.

“Hey!”

A mischievous grin grew on Mabel’s face as she heard Dipper’s shout. “SNOWBALL FIGHT!”

And then snow was flying everywhere. After the fight inside, this one didn’t last very long, especially after Dipper and Mabel started shivering from their lack of thick coats, but it was still far more fun than snowball fights should be.

“Oh y-you are g-going to p-pay for t-that.” Mabel’s voice chattered as she aimed a poorly shaped snowball at Stan. It missed spectacularly.

But then a second later, another snowball hit Stan smack in his chest and send him to the ground.

“Alright, who did that!” Stan sputtered as he sat up.

Glancing over, Pacifica saw Ford standing on the porch, holding up his hands and pointing to Wendy, who Pacifica hadn’t noticed was there until just now.

“Wendy!” Mabel and Dipper spoke at the same time as they rushed forward to hug her.

“You guys know you are supposed to have coats when you play in the snow right?” Wendy asked as she returned the hugs.

“It was G-grunkle Stan!”

“Hey, you said you were hot.” Stan brushed off his coat as he stood up.

“And now they look like they are about to freeze,” Ford said and nodded towards to the shack. “I smell some hot chocolate in there, might help with that.”

There was a rush to the door and a few minutes later everyone was snuggled around the fireplace with a mug in hand. Pacifica had added a few marshmallows to hers, but hadn’t put in nearly as many as Mabel.

The rest of the day blurred by. They drank hot chocolate, played with presents, and ate a few too many cookies. Wendy had to leave before supper, which was a shame because it was delicious. Pacifica had never had traditional Jewish food before, but it was amazing and quite the change from the turkey she was used to. Before she knew it, the sky was dark outside and she felt a buzz in her pocket.

Pulling out her phone, she saw a text from Lester.

‘Shall I come and pick you up, miss?’

Glancing up at the cozy room, Pacifica felt a small stab of sadness. She didn’t want to leave yet, but then again she was pretty tired.

She was just starting to type a reply when Mabel’s voice sounded right next to her head, making her jump.

“You can’t leave yet!”

Blinking her eyes to clear away the shock, Pacifica shook her head. “It is getting late though…”

Mabel pouted next to her, looking genuinely sad, which only made Pacifica feel worse. It wasn’t like she wanted to leave.

Then Mabel gasped and grabbed Pacifica’s arm. “Why don’t you spend the night?!?”

“Wait, what?” Dipper asked, looking up from him game of Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons that he was playing with Ford.

“It’ll be great! You can sleep in the attic and-”

“Oh no, I’m not staying in the attic for another sleepover…” Dipper said quickly.

“It wasn’t that bad…” Mabel started, but Dipper just looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“We swapped bodies for the whole day and Soos almost got eaten, yes it was that bad.”

Mabel opened her mouth, but didn’t seem to have a response.

Feeling very confused and a little awkward, Pacifica tried for a smile. “It’s fine, I don’t mind going home now. I’ll just text Lester and-”

“Wait. What if you sleep down here, Dipper?”

“Here? In the living room?” Dipper asked, putting down the dice that he was about to roll.

“Yeah, you talked about how it’s so cold in the attic anyway!”

“Well…” Dipper glanced at Pacifica, but she couldn’t read his expression. Then he shrugged and smiled. “I guess that could be fun.”

“You really don’t have to-” Pacifica started, but was cut off by Mabel.

“Then it’s settled! We can drop you off at your house tomorrow after the best sleepover ever!”

There was no arguing with Mabel. After texting Lester back, Pacifica was dragged upstairs where her and Mabel made a makeshift bed out of a bunch of Mystery Shack blankets and pillows because according to Mabel, Dipper’s bed was far too sweaty for anyone else to sleep in.

The rest of the night was more relaxed than Pacifica would’ve expected, but it wasn’t unwelcome. Mabel braided her hair - and she tried to return the favor but she was used to other people doing her hair so it wasn’t…great, but Mabel didn’t seem to mind. Then they ate more cookies and talked about school - Mabel filling her in on some of the cute boys at her school and Pacifica grumbling to her about how confusing math could be. Which resulted in Mabel offering for her to video chat with her or Dipper any time she needed help and also reassuring her that if she really needed it, Ford would be happy to help as well.

Pacifica didn’t know when she fell asleep. One moment she was talking with Mabel, and the next she was being shaken awake.

“Pacifica come and see this!”

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Pacifica saw Mabel looking at her upside down, a grin on her face.

“I already got a picture but…come on!”

Before Pacifica could reply, Mabel had grabbed her hand and started dragging her out of the attic and downstairs, leading her to a room she had never seen before.

Inside, there were piles of books and papers, with all sorts of equations and craziness written on them, but that’s not what Mabel was pointing at. In the corner of the room was a bed, where Ford was asleep, Dipper on his chest, both of them totally conked out.

“They must have been nerding out again,” Mabel whispered.

“They probably stayed up till three again.”

Pacifica turned around to see Stan, who hadn’t bothered to lower his voice.

“Well we didn’t do much better.” Mabel winked, and Pacifica froze.

“Wait, how late did we stay up?”

A shrug. “Don’t know, but it was late. My internal clock is never wrong!”

“What about the time you were sure it was only nine when it was really one in the morning?”

A groggy voice sounded from the room and Pacifica glanced over to see Dipper looking at them, bags under his eyes.

Mabel waved her hand. “That was a one time thing.”

“Suuuure…”

* * *

An hour later Pacifica was looking out the window as the snowy landscape passed by. They had eaten breakfast - leftover waffles, cookies, and any other food you wanted - and then Pacifica had climbed into Stan’s car again, this time Mabel sat in the front seat.

“You okay?”

Pacifica hadn’t realized she had been frowning until Dipper’s voice spoke next to her, almost drowned out by Mabel’s excited chattering in the front.

“Oh…yeah…I’m fine.”

There was no reply, but Pacifica could feel Dipper’s eyes studying her, which only made the sadness in her chest grow. Letting out a sigh, she resigned to the fact that sharing it would make her feel better. And Dipper always had been a good listener.

“It’s just…getting to celebrate Christmas with you guys was…really fun…”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Well, yeah…but, I know it’s not going to happen again. Next year my parents will drag me off to another vacation or throw presents at me again and expect me to just…play with them all day. Alone. I’m not going to have another Christmas like this ever again.” As she spoke, Pacifica felt tears build in her eyes, but she quickly tried to wipe them away.

Then a hand rested on her shoulder. “Hey, no Christmas is ever quite the same - you should’ve seen the year when I was so sick I couldn’t move. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Maybe…” Dipper paused for a moment, as if trying to figure out how to phrase his next words. “Maybe you could ask your parents if you could change things up a little?”

It sounded nice, but doubt filled Pacifica’s chest. “Maybe…”

“And if not, maybe me and Mabel can convince our parents to let us come again next year. Or you could always visit the Shack. Stan and Ford don’t mind visitors half as much as they pretend to and if Soos is here next year I’m sure he’d love to help you celebrate too.”

Dipper smiled at her and Pacifica found herself smiling back.

“Thanks Dipper.”

So her parents might not be keen on changing things up, but…even if they said no, she wasn’t entirely alone. Maybe, just maybe, Christmas could be fun again.


End file.
